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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



of the process may have been the facili- 

 tation of casting/' rather than the 

 hardening of the metal, must be under- 

 stood not to apply to the so-called cop- 

 per implements so abundantly made 

 from float or quarry copper of the 

 Great Lakes area. 



Under the head of "Fine Arts" are 

 presented a few specimens of native 

 literature. I must be content with 

 calling attention to half a dozen lines 

 from "an Inca hj^mn" (pages 141-3), 

 which is one with the vocal yearning of 

 the great souls of all ages and races of 

 men: 



"O Uira-eoc-ha! Lonl of the universe, 



My eyes fail me 



For longing to see thee ; 



For the sole desire to know thee. 



Oh hear me! 

 Oh choose me! 

 Let it not be 

 That I should tire, 

 That I should die." 



The time has surely passed when there is 

 longer justifiable excuse for the "ortho- 

 dox" religionist of today to say that all 

 scientific researches of necessity rob 

 modern men of spiritual yearnings and 

 life. On the contrary, intimate knowl- 

 edge of primitive peoples compels the 

 anthropologist to see nothing plainer 

 than that from earliest times the truly 

 great men have struggled in a ceaseless 

 endeavor to understand the purpose 

 and meaning of God in tbeir workable 

 relations with the other men of their 

 time. 



Dr. Wissler's study of western cul- 

 ture shows that, whether the anthro- 

 pologist studies the most measurable 

 facts of culture or the less material 

 traits, he finds unchallengeable claims 

 to the unity of the culture of the New 

 World. 



Chapters XIV to XXI, inclusive, 

 constitute the most original part of the 

 book. First the great social groups are 

 presented by descriptive text and map 



— such as the California area, the Es- 

 kimo area, the Amazon area. Then the 

 archaeological areas are similarly pre- 

 sented. Xext, the author brings to- 

 gether what facts are now accepted on 

 the chronology of Xew World cultures ; 

 the facts of linguistic classification fol- 

 low (where Powell is justly given 

 credit for probably as perfect a presen- 

 tation of pioneer work as any pioneer 

 scientist ever performed in so difficult 

 a field). The very recent scanty data 

 enabling an attempt at a somatic clas- 

 sification lead Dr. Wissler to conclude 

 "that our best lead in the development 

 of a somatic classification is to seek for 

 correlated distinguishing characters in 

 each recognized culture area." 



Many interesting, new, and sugges- 

 tive conclusions are drawn by the au- 

 thor from this broad sweep over the 

 Xew World as he thus has spread out 

 before him the entire area multifolded, 

 yet diversified by the several criteria of 

 classification just enumerated. Among 

 them are the following: "Language 

 and blood seem to spill over the edges 

 [of geographic areas] far more readily 

 than culture" (page 336) ; "The loca- 

 tion of food areas laid down the gen- 

 eral lines of culture grouping" (page 

 337) ; "The origin of a culture center 

 seems due to ethnic factors more than 

 to geographical ones" (page 339) ; 

 "While the environment does not 

 produce the culture, it furnishes the 

 medium in which it grows, and that 

 when once rooted in a geographical 

 area, culture tends to hold fast" (page 

 339). 



Dr. Wissler has, in this volume, ren- 

 dered a most valuable service to an- 

 thropology. Such a book could not 

 have been prepared earlier in the field 

 covered, and while the unsolved prob- 

 lems, as noted through the pages, are 

 numerous, their statement will assist 

 new students to visualize the problems, 

 to attack them with greater intelli- 

 gence and more reasonable hope of suc- 

 cess. 



